Any other day I might have not wanted to reveal this to him for so many reasons, but tonight was different. It was…tonight.
“Mine, too,” March said.
“Well, of course it is,” I muttered with a smile. Red was the color of his court, just like green and yellow were the colors of Clubs, and white was the color of Diamonds, and black and purple were ours.
“Notthatred.” March reached out his finger—neverletting go of my hand but taking it with him until he touched my cheek with his fingertip. “Thisone.”
Cheesy,I wanted to think—but it wasn’t. Maybe it was him and maybe it was the Labyrinth, but every word tumbling out of his lips was redefining perfection for me.
“Your turn. Go ahead, ask me a question,” March said.
Why are you so open with me? Why aren’t you embarrassed? Aren’t you afraid of what I’ll say?
It was like he knew me already.
“What’s your…favorite number?” I asked because we’d already talked about colors.
“Forty-eight,” he said without missing a beat.
I laughed. “That’s awfullyspecific!”
He shrugged. “I’m a very specific guy.”
He was a veryperfectguy, too, unfortunately for me.
Or was it fortunately?
Don’t mind me, I was lost in a haze tonight. I liked thistonightmore than any others I’d ever lived, and the night wasn’t even over yet.
“You’re different,” I started to say, and I was going to explain how. I was going to even ask him if he was always like this, so open and honest and unafraid in the face of a stranger—because that’s what we were in reality. Strangers.
Except before I could elaborate, someone tapped him on the shoulder—Reggie.
He’d stopped with Silas at his side, grinning while the Spade smiled, and I realized I’d seen them dancing together around us, just like everyone else. They were dancing, switching partners, swinging and singing and screaming, too.
“Don’t be rude, Red. You’re in my debt, remember? The least you can do is dance with me,” Reggie said, and before any of us knew it, he’d grabbed March and pulled him away from me, spun him around with ease.
My stomach hurt from all the laughing because March’s face was priceless. It was the first time he was caught by surprise, and he indeed looked like he’d just seen a clock moving backward.
Reggie was dancing with March,and Silas stopped in front of me.
“If I may have this dance,” he said with a deep bow and an extended hand.
Of course, he could. I was still laughing when we began, and Silas held me the way a dance partner ought to hold you. Or the way they taught us at the school dances, at least. His hand was on the side of my waist, the other holding mine, and there was a good bit of space between our chests as well.
March wouldnever, I found myself thinking. But March was busy trying to get Reggie off him while the rest of us laughed.
“Having a good time, I see,” Silas said as we spun around to the melody, which, by the way, hadn’t yet ended. The song went on and on, and I was sure it had been more than ten minutes since we started.
“Oh, yes, I am. This place is wonderful. More so than I could have imagined,” I said in a breath. Maybe because Silas was a Spade, or maybe because he was just Silas, but I didn’t feel like I should hold back from him. My instincts were perfectly at ease.
“It’s more than I’ve imagined, too,” he said, a strange tone to his voice as he looked up at the dark ceiling, like he was searching for something. “Especially the Hands. All of you.” Again, that lost look in his wide gray eyes as he spun us around and looked at the others dancing.
March had embraced his fate, it seemed—andReggie—and now they were dancing, spinning around and moving from one side to the other lightning fast, putting on a show for the others.
Time’s Teeth, the way my heart beat at the sight of his face. It was abnormal—it had to be.
“Yes, indeed. You all are quite great,” I admitted, a little surprised myself. I really,reallyhadn’t expected to feel so welcome among the other Hands—or for my own self to welcomethemso eagerly.
